Linking North Eastern States to mainland through Myanmar

New Delhi, May 24 (UNI) As a strategic move to reduce ''stranglehold'' of Bangladesh, India has embarked on an ambitious 103 million dollar project to connect the North-Eastern States with the rest of the country through Kaladan river in Myanmar.

In an integrated project of the Ministry of External Affairs, Commerce Ministry and the Ministry of Home Affairs, Mizoram will be linked to the crucial port of Settwe in Kaladan river. The river flowing northward is in Myanmar, which has agreed to give access to India for linking the North-Eastern States to the peninsular India.

Railway firm, RITES Ltd has been given the project of developing the Settwe port in three years.

''Idea is to byepass Bangladesh '', Minister of State for Commerce Jairam Ramesh told reporters after his meeting with the Industry and Horticulture Ministers of the seven North-Eastern States and Sikkim in Guwahati last week.

Besides linking the North-East to the peninsular states, the Kaladan river project will also give access to the entire South East Asian markets, Mr Ramesh said.

Establishing connectivity to the existing land customs stations and building new border land centres, also through the RITES, is another major initiative which the Commerce Ministry with the help of the Planning Commission and the Ministry of Home Affairs is pushing.

According to a study done by the Jawahar Lal Nehru University, on behalf of the Commerce Ministry, the trade potential with China from the Nathu La Pass in Sikkim is three billion dollar by 2015.

The Minister said the North Eastern States can emerge as the big export centres for a range of horticulture and handicraft products.

However, lack of infrastructure like cold stores, perishable air cargo at major airports and mobile cold stores is a major bottleneck.

The Agricultural Export Products Development Authority (APEDA) has been asked to open cold storages in most of the centres in the North East. Presently, it has such facility at Guwahati airport only.

APEDA has started negotiations with the Airport Authority of India which operates most of the airports in the region. New cold storage facilities will come up at Bagdogra, Aizwal, Imphal and Agartala.

The Export Promotion Council for Handicrafts (EPCH) is being roped to develop the handicraft exports from the region which has a big potential in bamboo,cane and Moga silk. The centre will spend Rs 15 crore through the EPCH on improving the designs of the handicraft products from the North East.

The prestigious National Institute of Fashion Technology is also slated to open its branch in Guwahati.

The North Eastern States contribute a total of Rs 1000 crore, less than one per cent of the country's total exports. Even of the Rs 1000 crore exports, bulk of it is contributed by tea from Assam.

The region's potential has not been tapped and the Minister of State for Commerce will have a quarterly meetings with the state governments.

UNI PC ARB ND1828